If I Were A Poor Man
by ToasterGod
Summary: What if, in some alternate universe far away, all the Ouran students weren't children of the elites? They are just teenagers attending a public school system somewhere along with the rest of the youth today. Follow along the school year to find out the different lives they would be living, and how it changes who you may know them as. (Ouran AU)
1. Chapter 1

It's Friday, the last day of the first week of school. The scent of new clothes and materials still lingered in the halls of Lakewood High School. It was currently Lunch B, everyone now in their groups setting around and eating in the glass walls of the lunchroom. Red metal beams cut the glass in halves and support the walls while giving it a design element. The carpet was the typical gray with specks of other colors to give it some spark all over the school (except in the art room, since they didn't want to have to clean paint out of the fibers). Some could be seen wandering the halls behind the glass from Lunch A, hurrying to class before they were late.

There weren't too many new transfer students for this new school year. For the seniors, the newest student in back in middle school from Russia. Umehito Nekozawa had since been in charge of the paranormal activities club. He was enough weird, the class agreed, to not need a new student. He was in a corner of the lunchroom walking to the emos.

The most popular in the class were cousins, Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Huninozuka. Takashi was the star athlete on the varsity hockey team. He could play every position on this ice, but he preferred goalie. Despite his fame, Takashi was quite the shy guy; he barely spoke too many words with his deep voice. His cousin, who was much shorter and quite the opposite, was the peppy mascot. He knew all the cheerleaders, band geeks, and athletes by name. However, Mitsukuni would still hang out with his cousin over anyone else.

"Hey, Takashi!" Mitsukuni quickly took his spot next to his cousin at their unspoken assigned lunch table. "Wasn't the lake a great place to go this summer? I still can't believe you didn't ask that girl for her number. You two had a lot in common."

The younger of the two shook his head, forcing back a blush. This talk seemed to keep coming up in conversations recently. He let out a heavy sigh. "It was just a summer love. You know? Like that musical you forced me to watch after I was bedridden from eating too much seafood." Suddenly, Mitsukuni went into songs from Grease. He stood up in his chair and started to sing loudly, but a teacher quickly appeared and put an end to his shenanigans. The lunch room, however, applauded his performance.

Tables away from the seniors sat the popular Juniors. They were quite the energetic class, thanks to the two French transfer students. "Encore! Encore!" they shouted in unison. Renge Houshakuji came in during her Freshman year. She was quite creative and planned the class dances and events to raise money for field trips. She was also an otaku that now led the anime club at Lakewood High. Many believed the her and René should date to drain their energy on each other. However, Renge liked someone else. René Grandtaine was quite the charmer, though he wasn't dating anyone currently. He was on the varsity soccer team, which was very hard to get on at their school. There was no girls' soccer team, but no girls were interested in the sport; they were more interested in shopping and watching the guys play. His best friend, and polar opposite, was the class president, Kyouya Ootori. "Yet another year of Huni," Kyouya shook his head. Despite those words, he found himself clapping. He was, without a doubt, the coolest of the cool. In fact, some of the dictionaries in the library had his picture pasted next to the word; that was also due to the sophomore Hitachiin twins prank.

Speaking of the sophomore class, they did have two new students this semester. Twins, in fact. It was odd, since the class always had the identical gingers twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, who sat across the lunchroom for their new classmates. The basketball stars, the hipsters, and the most antisocial of them all. They had quite the attitude until recently. The class didn't know if it was necessarily the new twins that had made them territorial, or if something happened over the summer for them to want to start socializing with others in the class. "Mitsukuni should try out for the play this year," Hikaru laughed as he elbowed his brother lightly. Kaoru was still wiping his nose from laughing so hard that his milk came out of his nose. His older brother's comment only got him to start laughing again.

The Kally twins were fraternal. Rio looked like the typical Redneck-American everyday so far in class; he had blonde hair pulled back, always in a flannel shirt that was tucked into some jeans. Of course, he wore cowboy boots to go along with it. He never was into musicals, so he wasn't sure what was going on. Rio just kept eating the lunch special of taco-in-a-bag. His sister, Ariel, had the same blonde hair but longer. She didn't wear her redneck, but rather her accent revealed it. It was much deeper than her brother's. No one had asked the two yet as to why they moved to the area, but they were making friends with the rest of the class pretty quickly.

Then, there were the freshman, the fresh meat and soon-to-be 'slaves' to the upperclassmen. Adriana Villa, Emily Emmerson, Ritsu Kasanoda, and Haruhi Fujioka had already made quite the name for themselves. Adriana was rumored to be trying out for the varsity soccer team this spring. Seeing that she was in the Supernatural Club with Umehito didn't really make sense to people. They figured it was just some odd rumor and left it as is. Emily was the band geek, who could easily be picked on with her innocence. Ritsu was among the other classes' gossip, however, being a cop's son and the hall monitor. They were always careful what they talked about around him. "I feel like people ignore me," he was explaining to Adriana. "Do you think it's my face?"

"Don't be silly." She couldn't help but giggle at his thoughts. Sure, he had a few zits, but so did the rest of their class. He was very self-conscious. She had suggested he rub toothpaste on his face; some still caught in his hair, but no one had the heart to tell him.

"Yeah! Hang in there, Ritsu!" Emily nodded. Her mouth was full of the other lunch special of pizza. Friday was always the best day for specials for the school. It was the closest to junk food they could get unless they were seniors and could go out for fast food.

Haruhi was sitting with the three, but she was just listening. She was. The richest transfer in history so far from a private school. Her father had made her attend, for at least a semester, to broaden her horizons by going to a public school. The experience would be good for her, he said. However, she did not agree.

Ritsu suddenly covered his face and screamed. Everyone in the lunchroom turned to the Freshman who had toothpaste in his eyes. When he went and combed his fingers through his hair, the toothpaste got on his hand. Needless to say, when he rubbed his eyes, it resulted in a painful sting. Adriana quickly stood up and went with her water bottle to help him wash it out of his eye. Everyone else was in shock and confused.

That's when suddenly, Mitsukuni pointed over to Adriana. The curls that wrapped her cheeks reminded him of the girl Takashi had talked to about video games all summer while they were at their cabin at the lake. "Hey, isn't that-?" Before he could finish, Takashi quickly covered his mouth. His cousin pushed his hand away started jumping up and down in his seat. "It is! Go get her number. Takashi!"

"I already have her gamer ID!" he finally revealed. His cousin's eyes sparkled as he gasped. "And, no. I'm not going to ask her out on a date."

"I'll post it on Twitter until you do! I ship you two so hard." Mitsukuni squealed and stretched in his seat in excitement. "She's really cute, too. I don't see why you don't just go on one date."

Takashi groaned, his head hiding into his arms folded on the table. "She just got over a hard breakup. I'm not going to push her into anything right now." He peeked over his arm to her. She had her hands on her hips as Ritsu was sighing in relief. Takashi sighed and went back to hiding his blushing from his older cousin.

"Ooh, you got her gamer digits, at least. Maybe by homecoming she'll be over the dude. Then, you have to ask her out. Don't make me go on an all-cake-diet in rebellion again. You remember the bad breakouts I had last time when you wouldn't try out for the hockey team back in middle school. Now, it's your favorite things to do...besides video games and talking to - what's her name? – Katie?"

"Adri," he said in his deep voice. "She bocs on mic, and Piyo talks to her sometimes. God, I can't."

Mitsukuni laughed. He could tell Takashi had been on Tumblr again with his wording. The only thing preventing him from going on was him biting his bottom lip. It was always so interesting when his cousin liked someone, being that he was such a shy guy. It took a lot to push him to do things he enjoyed. "There, you see her. Sitting there across the way. She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her. And, you don't know why, but you're dyin' to try. You wanna kiss the girl." Mitsukuni began singing from The Little Mermaid.

Suddenly, the Hitachiin twins chimed in. They had a peak of interest after hearing the two talk about gamer digits. They lived in the same cul de sac, so they knew each other. "Yes, you want her. Look at her, you know you do! Possible she want you too. There's one way to ask her."

"You are all trolls." Takashi got up, picking up his finished tray to toss it. The twins were following him to do the same, snickering away. "You don't even know what we were talking about," he mumbled, holding the trash lid open for them with his own tray.

Kaoru shook his head, tossing his tray foods away and putting it on top. "No, so why don't you tell us?" Hikaru agreed. His brother took his tray from him to clean it off. "Yeah. Tell us about your little fling with gamer chick. It's not like we won't end up hearing rumors now that Mitsukuni is going to Tweet it."

He dragged the two out into the halls. This was also a way to get away from his cousin for a bit. It was really a sense of relief for him. The twins looked up at him ready, their expressions and stance identical. Takashi looked over passed the cafeteria glass wall. "She bumped into me while I was swimming in the lake. She popped up, holding something above her head while making the "item obtained" sound from Zelda. I didn't see what she had at first, so my hands quickly checked to see if my trunks were on. Luckily, it was just a seashell."

The twins held their sides as they roared with laughter. The sound caught Adriana's attention. She blinked then squinted in disbelief of who she saw. There was no way it Takashi, so she shrugged and went back to comforting Ritsu. "Sorry, go on," Hikaru waved his hand as he gained a little more control of the image in his head.

"Well, we just started talking about games, after that. She said she just moved here, and we just started hanging out whenever we saw each other at the beach. Mitsukuni caught us under the pier, just trying to get out of the sun for a while. He said it was a make-out spot." Takashi mumbled, blushing at even the thought of doing such a thing to someone he barely knew. Though, he did find her attractive in her swimsuit. The meaning of seashells became an inside joke with him and Mitsukuni. "Nothing really happened. We talked about a few things, but once she brought up her ex, it was like a red light of currently not available."

Hikaru folded his arms, looking in the cafeteria for who this girl was. "Well, at least you got to hang out with girls. We had to work at the comic shop with dad all summer. Nerds told us that our prices were too high, and how they could get the same comic cheaper off the Internet. Dad would end up yelling at me after I yelled at them. I don't see why they had to complain. They still bought the thing."

His brother sighed at the memory. "Yes, but we did get money for Starbucks. It helps us get out of the house from our crazy parents while they're here. Otherwise, they're always at a convention." Kaoru smiled to his upperclassman. "I still think you should, at least, go talk to her before—." He jumped as the bell ring. Too late. Lunch was over.


	2. Chapter 2

There were two parking lots at the school. One was for the faculty and staff. The other was for the students, off to the front of the school and wrapping around to the back. Even though the rules stated that only the juniors and seniors were allowed to get permits to park in the lots, they were full by the time the first bell rung. Hikaru and Kaoru rode home with Takashi, since they were neighbors in the cul de sac and usually had to stay after school for practice during the season. René and Renge lived on the other side of town from the estates the others lived in, near the middle schools. They were heading out when Renge noticed Kyouya talking to Ariel. She yanked René's arm to get him to stop before getting too far from earshot.

"…I can give you and your brother a ride home. You live right behind me," Kyouya was telling her. A pit in Renge's stomach grew with jealousy. When René was asking her why she stopped him, she quickly pushed him off the sidewalk and towards his car. She couldn't believe this. Kyouya never offered anyone a ride home, not since the day he took her home when she got sick. That passenger seat – in her mind – was for her and her alone. She wasn't going to share it with some sophomore. René was sure to get an earful on their way back home.

Ariel looked up for a bit with her hazel eyes then back to Kyouya's own dark brown. A smile spread on her thin lips. "I'll have to ask my brother, first." She turned around to grab her brother's arm, he nearby talking to one of their classmates. The junior brought his hand up to his mouth to hide his smile. He couldn't get over her thick, southern accent. Her speech had slowed down, he's noticed, since they moved in a week before school ended the last school year. Even though he could understand her now, it still entertained him to hear someone talk in such an accent in the north. "Hey, Rio. You wanna hitch a ride with Kyouya? He's offerin'."

Her brother looked over his shoulder to the Asian. Ever since that tree had been cut down in their backyard, the junior seemed to be getting friendlier. Rio didn't trust him. It wasn't that he had anything on him just yet, but he answered, "We can't. Mamaw is expecting us on the bus. Maybe next time. I'll save you a seat."

"Alright." She watched her brother walk off with their classmate before shyly shrugging to the upperclassman. Ariel tucked some strands of hair behind her ear. "Sorry. Our grandparents are really protective at the moment with us. We just got cell phones for the first time! I can give you my number, so I'll tell you what she says tonight." She quickly turned her satchel to the front and pulled out her cell phone.

Kyouya pulled his purple iPhone out of his pocket. He had an unread message. It was from his brother, Akito. Somehow, he'd always end up forgetting where the spare key was hidden to get in the house; Kyouya guessed that's what the message was going to say, so it was okay to ignore it for now. They had plans today to go have dinner together. He was really excited to see him; it had been a few weeks since he had seen any of his siblings. His sister was going to be visiting with her child next weekend, when Kyouya's father had return from his business trip.

After opening the contacts, they both exchanged numbers. She waved and ran to the bus quickly. Kyouya found himself waving back. It felt strange. He looked at his hand that had waved, then back to his phone. The teen tucked the iPhone back in his pocket and pulled out his keys while he was walking back to his car. It was such a relief to get his backpack off his shoulder. He had each of his textbooks today to do his homework after dinner with his brother.

Once he got home, however, Akito's car wasn't there. Kyouya got out of his car and looked out in the road to see if he was just parked there. A frown formed on his lips. He quickly pulled out his phone again to check the message.

_cant make it sorry_

Kyouya slammed his car door. This was getting old. He understood that his brothers were in college getting their degrees, and he understood that his sister had a family of her own. Being the youngest still made him feel like an only child. He took deep breaths to try to calm his thoughts. However, he was so tired of being alone for days. Even when his father was there, he was mentally everywhere else. Kyouya's hand shook as he unlocked the door. The keys were tossed on the in-table slamming hard enough to barely make a jingle except while flying through the air. His foot was used to close the door.

"I might as well just throw a party," he rolled his eyes. It wasn't his style, really. Kyouya had done it, but he didn't like making the maid suffer for something he's done to rebel against his father; she came while he was at school, usually. He stormed up stairs and to his room. It was a well organized room with only his pajama pants in the floor. However, what always caught people's eye upon entry was the painting. It started with a canvas on the wall, framed in brown in gold with a violet flower, similar to the lisianthus flower. Soon after his mother's accident, he added on to the painting she loved. It grew out of the frame and onto the wall. Purple to blue, to green and yellow, red and hints of violet to make it reflect back to the original painting.

'Look, Mother,' his voice echoed in his head each time upon entering his own room. 'See? Look at this picture I took of the painting. You have to come home to see it for yourself.'

'Oh, it's beautiful, Kyouya!' her voiced wheezed, despite the angelic smile on her lips. The tears fell from both their eyes. It was about the same time he had met René. It was the first he really allowed himself to open up to someone, since his family were growing distant without his mother in the house. His hate and appreciation for René appearance in his life frustrated him.

Kyouya would allow himself to be buried in this homework. At least that would be more productive for the standardize testing he'd have to take later in the year. That would allow himself to hide from himself for just a little while longer. Before he got to settled too much, however, René's icon came up calling him on his laptop. Kyouya put on his headset and answered the blonde. "What is it?" he asked. His foul mood in his tone. The dark eyes averted from looking at the screen.

"Don't be like that!" René pouted. His room was a bit feminine, being that his mother was the one that decided the color schemes when they moved. Red at the bottom, white boarding in the middle to cut to the pink on top. There were often roses in a vase next to his bed, but this time it was empty. "Have you seen what Renge posted on her blog yet? She seems really upset."

Kyouya sighed and went over to see what she had said. Her profile icon was always changing, so he had to bookmark Renge's page. He leaned back in his chair as he read the post. "It looks like her normal upset post. Why are you bring it up?"

René looked away with his violet-contact eyes, poking his fingers together. It was a habit he always had. An annoying one that Kyouya always swatted at his hands when he was near. "Well, she was talking to me about it on the way home, too. You never offered someone for a ride home before. You didn't even look at Ariel with your forced smile."

"She and her brother live right behind me, René. Her grandparents often asked me to eat dinner with them even before they moved here. You know that." He didn't understand why his friend was acting like this. "If this is about how she has a crush on me, I don't get why you're worried about it. I haven't dated anyone. I haven't even liked someone before."

"You did this summer." That made Kyouya's stomach jump. How could he bring that up at a time like this? His face growing red as René's did but more out of angry than embarrassment. "I know I said I didn't want to talk about it, but–."

The ravenette quickly cut him off. "No! It's not fair that you suddenly want to talk about it. I asked to talk about it after it happened, but you said that it was just a phase; a misunderstanding, a mistake! Then, you stormed off like a child."

"Kyouya, you're–." Before René could get out his sentence, Kyouya dropped the call. He couldn't take this right now. He couldn't think about summer when there was work to be done. Burying himself in work was his escape. He understood it, only because it was what his father done and does now after his mother passed away in a car accident during Kyouya's 7th grade year. He hadn't picked up a paintbrush since.

For an hour, without a break, he went through his book report. Reading, taking notes, then answering some questions about the book the teacher had assigned the whole class. It was English, so it was a subject he enjoyed. This lightened his mood to get lost inside words, phrases, sentences, in another world that wasn't his own. Yet, he still had to return to the problems he faced at the closing of the covers.

Kyouya sighed. His pale hand ran through his lightly gelled raven hair. It wasn't that he wasn't used to feeling alone, but the fact of actually being alone in the house scared me. The silence ringing in his ears. Even taking self-defense classes didn't help his nerves. Kyouya sat back in his chair to stretch his sore back. That's when caught his eyes' attention out his window. Across his sight and into the house beyond his backyard was Ariel. She was singing into her brush again, dancing around the room. Her hair would smack in her face as she spun about. "What in the world is she listening to?"

He grabbed his iPhone and called her. Kyouya went over to his window and opened it, leaning on the edge of the window to watch her reaction. At least he would get some entertainment from seeing her caught. Ariel stopped, her small frame moved from breathing so hard. She turned down her laptop, then grabbed her phone and put it to her ear. The sounds of a drop beat was still in the background. "Hello?"

Kyouya smirked. Let the games begin. "Look out your window." Ariel slowly turned to look over her shoulder. The squeal that came out of her mouth was almost inhuman. A blush quickly grew on her face as she ducked below her window. Kyouya nearly fell out of his window from laughing so hard.

"How long were you watching?!" she said in an octave higher than her own voice. Kyouya looked at his phone at the sound of a click. She had hung up on him. Ariel opened her blinds and then her window. "Mamaw said that you should come over for dinner. She's worried about you," she called out to him. "We're having chicken parmesan."

He put down the phone, a small smile on his face. This felt like a movie with the girl next door. Maybe getting some food in his system would help along with some company. He rather enjoyed hearing stories from Ariel's grandfather. "Give me ten minutes, and I'll be over."


End file.
